The latest news in the unending 1MDB international money-laundering scandal which has catapulted Malaysia into the dubious stratosphere of a “global kleptocracy” is that another bank, the Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild, has become the latest financial institution to be punished for regulatory lapses in relations to money laundering and the 1MDB scandal.

The Luxembourg Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (CSSF) fined the local arm of Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild EUR8.985 million (RM43 million) for failing to take proper safeguards against money laundering in the handling of funds linked to scandal-hit Malaysian investment fund 1MDB.

Luxembourg is the latest country and Rothschild the latest Swiss bank to be swept up in the 1MDB case, which has triggered money-laundering investigations in at least six countries including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

DAP condemns the politics and mentality of kafir against a Malacca State Exco Member, Datuk Lim Ban Hong , who was referred to as a “kafir” (infidel) in a WhatsApp message on Sunday over his visit to a multi-purpose hall near a mosque in Bukit Rambai, Malacca to hand over Hari Raya goodies.

The Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron had said that it was “uncivilised and uncouth” to label a person as an infidel when Lim was doing a noble deed by providing goodies to the underprivileged.

Extremism of whatever form must not be allowed to rear their ugly heads in plural Malaysia or the strength of Malaysia’s diversity of races, religions, languages and cultures would become our fatal weaknesses to divide and tear the nation asunder.

This is particularly important especially as extremist forces in our society are seeking to establish a beach-head in our society. Read the rest of this entry »